an irregular view on cities

Menu

Crosswalk? Bah.

1. Who are the real scofflaws? In 15 min. observing a clearly marked zebra crosswalk at Milwaukee & Sawyer this afternoon, 92% of drivers refused to yield to pedestrians who had the right of way.

The average pedestrian was threatened by 7 motorist-criminals before she was able to exercise her lawful right to cross the street. Why should a pedestrian even bother crossing legally (and not just jaywalk) if drivers won’t let her cross in any case?

2. “Dangerous by Design” calculates that our local governments don’t particularly care, either; per-capita annual federal spending on active transportation in our region is a paltry $0.75, right down there with Houston, Detroit, and San Bernandino. If we matched #1 Providence at a mere $4 per capita, that’d be over $31M a year in additional investment annually.

Post navigation

4 thoughts on “Crosswalk? Bah.”

It takes me, on average, 2 minutes of waiting to cross the mere two lanes of South Shore Drive, even though there’s a crosswalk. No one ever stops, and I wouldn’t dream of putting myself in their way on the assumption that they would.

In Seattle, where I was just recently visiting (and biking/walking in), motor vehicles commonly slow to a stop for any ped. or cyclist who is standing on the corner of an intersection. I’m not even sure how much a painted crosswalk matters–I got the feeling the drivers were consistently reacting to any sight of peds/cyclists at the side of a road who were facing the opposite side. Seattle peds/cyclists carry themselves like 1st class citizens and rarely hesitated to /take their right-of-way/. In Chicago, such awareness (to the law and to other users of the public way) is rarely found. The driving class of Chicago (and the majority of cities in America) is considered by all (peds/cyclists too) to carry exclusive 1st-class rights to the public way.

I know that intersection oh so well! Like Kevin M. mentions, I always conduct myself as a 1st class citizen, albeit a wise one, not willing to get run over. I make my way across in one step increments pointedly looking at drivers, willing them to stop, but stopping myself if need be (and I’m still here!).